Tillman bucks party establishment in bid for California’s 31st District

Danny Tillman spent a recent weeknight speaking to a group of women during their routine Bunco game to promote his run for Congress. The politician left the dice game with two players volunteering space in their yards for his campaign signs.

Out of the five candidates running in California’s 31st District — which includes Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands and part of San Bernardino — Tillman has the least amount of money in his campaign fund, according to filings with the Federal Elections Commission.

“I know from the beginning I’m a long shot,” Tillman said during an interview in his San Bernardino home.

“I’ve always been a long shot in terms of the establishment giving me money. I’ve never been the type of candidate — I still haven’t figured this out — where people with big money get behind me. It just don’t happen.”

Not only is his own Democratic Party not supporting him, it has gone out of its way to make his political life more burdensome.

Tillman has been elected to the San Bernardino school board five times. The first four he was endorsed by the San Bernardino County Democratic Central Committee.

This past November he won reelection without its support.

Multiple members of the county committee said Tillman was not endorsed for school board because he is running for Congress after party leaders asked him not to.

Tillman said he was pulled aside at the state Democratic convention last year and was discouraged from running for Congress. Instead, they told him he would have the party’s support if he ran for state office, according to Tillman.

But Sacramento doesn’t have the same appeal to Tillman as Washington, even though he’s not a fan of traveling.

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“I want to be able to impact our region in a big way,” he said.

Tillman has lived all his life in the 31st District, working for the county during the past 33 years.

He says the biggest challenge facing the region is a lack of jobs. The unemployment rate in the Inland Empire is around 10 percent.

“You have a large, skilled workforce out here that I think is ripe for new industry, but somebody has to fight to bring that industry out here,” Tillman said.

The 50-year-old says he finds it easy to hire people who are working in Los Angeles because they will likely take a pay cut to exponentially reduce their commute time.

Tillman also believes his technology background will help him as a congressman because he will be able to explain 21st century problems to constituents, like the government health care website debacle or the NSA spying case.

“You’ve got to understand technology to make that statement,” he said. “The average representative can’t even make that statement because they don’t have a clue what’s going on. They just don’t.”

Tillman said he doesn’t know enough about the NSA program that collected data regarding citizens’ phone calls and emails to support it or not.

Tillman said he supports a pathway to citizenship for immigrants and backs the DREAM Act 100 percent, which would provide a road to citizenship for youth who graduate college or serve in the military.

He is also a fan of labor unions and protecting the environment.

“There’s no way they can deny that I am a great Democrat and have had a great career on the school board,” Tillman said of his party shunning him.

In the 31st District primary, Tillman will be running against the incumbent, Rep. Gary Miller, R-Rancho Cucamonga, and three Democrats: Redlands Mayor Pete Aguilar, Colton private attorney Eloise Gomez Reyes and former Rep. Joe Baca.

Aguilar is backed by the leading Political Action Committee for House Democrats — the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Gomez Reyes is backed by national abortion-rights group, Emily’s List.

Those two, along with Miller, had hundreds of thousands of cash on hand as of Sept. 30.

Baca had about $36,000 at that time, while Tillman had a meager $2,333.

However, Tillman thinks his name and broad group of contacts can make up for his lack of funds. He’s working in more than a dozen county offices and has been volunteering in the community since high school.

But Allan Hoffenblum, publisher of the California Target Book and owner of a political consulting firm, said that without the campaign cash, chances are slim Tillman will advance from the primary to the general election. The 31st District is just too big, he said.

“It’s all but impossible to make an impact without campaign advertising,” Hoffenblum said during a phone interview.

Even Aguilar with $437,725 in his war chest will need to spend nearly all of it just to get the same name identification that Baca already has by being a former congressman, according to Hoffenblum.

In this race, Hoffenblum suggested, whichever Democrat runs the best primary campaign will emerge from the all-party primary in June and likely be the favorite against Miller in the November election. The district has more Democratic voters than Republican.

Instead of paying for mailers and broadcasting slots, Tillman hopes to close the monetary gap by talking to people and encouraging friends to spread the word.

“The only way I know I won’t win for sure is if I don’t run,” Tillman said. “Everybody running is in the same predicament. You give it your best shot and see what happens.”